52stories

(2 votes, average: 3 out of 5)

 Loading …

It is always so HARD to sleep on Christmas Eve! I kept waking up every 5 minutes it seemed. But I must have slept some, because then I heard my sister yelling “Get up! Get up!” as she tore into my room and punched me in the arm for good measure. My heart pounded as we raced down the stairs to the most beautiful tree and presents all around. And that one in the corner was just big enough for..

And then I woke up. For real. But there was no tree, only the battered card table in the kitchen of my trailer. Next door, the rumble of that dang diesel pickup ratted my windows. I sat up on the sofa and looked at the clock. 6am. Christmas Eve. What an ungodly hour, especially since my shift at the Lucky Chicken hadn’t ended till 2 am last night. I flopped back down on the sofa, closing my eyes and hoping for a few more minutes of sleep, but it wasn’t to be. My dog decided he couldn’t wait any longer, and between his whines and my trailer throbbing, I gave up.

“All right, I am coming, just hang on.” I stumbled to the kitchenette, looking for the leash. The small brown package on the table stared back at me accusingly. It really wasn’t my package, I mean, the mailman had left it on my steps 2 days before, but it was addressed to some girl three trailers down People came and went from here pretty regular, so I hadn’t actually met her. Miriam Valdez, the name said. She probably wasn’t even still living there anymore, I told myself, trying to ignore that little voice pricking the back of my head. I had been meaning to take it down there, still, it was probably the only package I would get this Christmas. Mom was between husbands this year, and my sister was busy with baby number 3, so there wouldn’t be anything from them. I didn’t have many other friends, and the ones I did had headed back home for the Christmas break. I was stuck here between terms, working at the Lucky Chicken because I had to pay my fine and court costs for that stupid DWI that really wasn’t my fault anyway. In any case, my probation lasted until the spring, and then I could finally leave this pit.

I found the leash and I headed out the door for a walk, actually more like a drag. He dragging me down the road towards the highway so that he could piss on the exact same signpost that every other neighborhood dog had marked overnight. We passed the trailer were that girl would be. A battered dodge was parked next to the trailer, so someone was there. But probably not her anyway.

Back at my place, I fixed the dog his breakfast and some coffee for me. The package still sat on my table. Well, I could take it down there, and then if she wasn’t there, I mean, how many times was I suppose to try? Maybe it was something good to eat that shouldn’t go to waste in any case. The package stared at me for a few more hours, and finally I couldn’t take it any more. I finished my coffee, then took the package and headed back out the door. The car was still there, and I could see a figure moving past one of the windows. I knocked on the door.

A girl with brown hair answered. She was about my age, and looked like she had just woken up too. I held out the package. “Hi – Are you Miriam? I live three trailers down, and the mail guy left this on my step a few days ago.” At first she looked suspicious, but when she saw the package, her face lit up.

“Oh GREAT! I have been waiting for this. I figured it got lost in the mail. Thanks!” She took the package. “Hi, I am Miriam. You must be Jake.” She smiled

I was confused. “Uh, yeah, how did you know?”

She nodded her head in the direction of the trailer next door. “Mrs. Miller. She knows everything about everyone around here. And you play your music too loud.” She laughed. “Do you want to come in for some coffee?”

“Uh , sure.” I followed her into her trailer. Basically it was the same as mine, only hers was fully of boxes that were being unpacked, or packed, it looked like. She put the package on her table and cleared off a chair for me to sit. “Sorry about the mess.”

“Are you moving in our out?” I asked

“Out.” She smiled “I’ve got some family back east. I am going to stay with them awhile and try to save a little money.” I heard a small rustling noise in the corner and a little mewing noise that was maybe a cat? She heard it too, and went quickly to the corner and bent over to pick something up. OK, not a cat. A baby?

“Looks like Jessie decided to wake up and join the party.” The baby squirmed in her arms. “Jake, Jessie. Jessie, Jake.”

I smiled weakly. I mean what do you say to a baby? “He looks like a nice baby.” That sounded idiotic the minute it came out of my mouth.

She didn’t seem to notice. “Oh, he’s the best. Do you want to hold him while I open the package?”

“OK, I definitely didn’t want to, but she had already pressed the baby into my arms. He looked up at me with a very serious expression on his face.”

“He looks like you.” Now that sounded better.

“Actually, he looks more like his father.” She replied.

“And his father is…?”

“Gone. For a long time now.” She had opened the brown box and reached inside and pulled out a smaller box. I could see the QVC logo.

I juggled the baby in my arms “What is it?”

She held up the box. “A Nativity Scene. When I was little, we always had one under our Christmas tree. It probably seems silly, I mean he won’t even remember this Christmas. But when I saw it, it looked so much like to the one I used to have. I just had to get it.” She began unwrapping the pieces and setting them out on the table. “Now it can be Christmas.” She declared.

“It’s not much of a Christmas, is it?” I asked

“What do you mean?” She seemed genuinely surprised.

“I mean, here you are, and me too. Looks like we are in the same boat. Away from home, barely getting by, no family to speak of. It just doesn’t feel like Christmas.”

She smiled and looked down at the plastic manger scene on the table. She picked up one of the figures and ran her fingers over it.

“Actually, it is just like Christmas, the first Christmas. Mary and Joseph on the road, away from their family. Sleeping in a barn with a newborn. Compared to that, what we got looks pretty good. At least my heater works!” She handed me the figure.

“And in the end, the child born that night changed the world. I don’t know if Mary could imagine that journey when she first looked at her son. But she had faith, not that things would be easy, but that God would walk it with her. She never gave up, she just kept going. “

“So is that what you are doing? Just keep going, even when it seems you are going nowhere?”

“Look, I don’t really know what will happen when I get back home. But yeah, I guess, I do believe that I will figure it out along the way.”

In my arms, the baby began to squirm. She reached for him, and I passed her the bundle. “Looks like he needs to be changed.”

“Hey – my shift ends early today, I get off at 7. I could bring back some leftover Chinese. Do you want to eat dinner with me tonight before you leave?

She smiled. “Actually, that sounds great. I will see you later then.” I headed for the door. “Ok tonight.

Maybe it was knowing that I had something to look forward to that evening made time crawl during my shift that day. But 7pm finally came, and I rode my bike back to the trailer, the plastic bags of take out Chinese swinging from the handlebars. When I got to my steps, and there was a small brown package I recognized. And a note from Miriam.

Jake – I am sorry that I didn’t get a chance to say good bye. The weatherman says there’s a bad ice storm on the way, so I decided to get on the road early and hope to beat it. I decided that you should have this, maybe it will help you remember that even in the darkest times there is always a light that will show you the way. Just keep moving and trust that you will figure it out along the way. M

I ran to Mirian’s trailer, but it was dark. The car was gone. I peered in the window, trying to see inside. Then I turned the corner and ran right into Mrs. Miller. She narrowed her eyes with me. “Jake, what are you doing, peeking in other people’s windows? You better get gone before I call the police.”

“I am looking for Miriam.”

“Who?”

“Miriam, the girl that was living here.”

“Child, there ain’t been no one living there for 2 months ever since the Birdwell family moved out. Now GIT.”

I walked back to my trailer, picked up the box, and went inside. I unwrapped the pieces and set them up on my table. Then with the holy family watching, I ate my Christmas dinner, but I gave the dog my fortune cookie.